Hartzell begins full-scale production of Jasco alternator line

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Hartzell Engine Technologies reports it has received all updated FAA Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) and Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMAs) and has begun full- scale production of the Jasco Alternator line.

“Acquiring a product line from another company is just the beginning of a long and laborious process,” Mike Disbrow, president of Disbrow, stated. “Before you can even make an application for PMA to the FAA you must have everything in place from a design, quality and manufacturing standpoint required to produce the specific product in question. Since we are already in the alternator business, it wasn’t starting from scratch, but in this case it was close.”

“One of the biggest challenges with regards to the Jasco line was the task of recreating all of the various engineering drawings in our 3D Solidworks CAD system. The prints we received were hand drawn in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s so there was a considerable effort by our engineering team to bring them up to current standards,” he said. “We also had to contact the various TC/STC holders to get their consent to reproduce these PMA parts.”

“We have received tremendous support from those TC/STC holders including Air Repair, Air Tractor, Hiller Aircraft, Texas Helicopter and Thrush Aircraft for our PMA applications,” Disbrow stated. “We are very thankful for their help in expediting the process.”

Disbrow also explained that updating the original drawings in CAD format was just the beginning. Hartzell Engine Technologies’ engineers thoroughly audited each design to ensure it met the company’s quality standards.

“We found some discrepancies during the first article inspection process,” he said. “We discovered two part numbers that would not shear at their specified load when produced according to the original drawing. We had to conduct testing and work with the heat treatment supplier to rectify this issue. The design issue with those parts has now been solved and we’ve restarted production.”

New design technologies are not the only improvements HET is making to bring the legacy Jasco alternators up to 21st century specifications, according to company officials. The company is also using a new ATI Alternator Test Stand on all of its alternator products, including the Jasco models.

“This new stand is programmable for speed and voltage and produces a report covering several parameters for alternator performance including output power, current, efficiency, ripple voltage, ripple current and transient voltage spikes,” Disbrow said. “When we acquired the Jasco line, we produced fixtures and created programs specifically to test these units on the ATI stand.”

While many of the steps and processes HET has used to evaluate and refine each of the Jasco products may seem a bit excessive to some, Disbrow said that Hartzell believes it is all necessary to ensure that, “Our customers receive an alternator that performs to specifications across the entire operating range of that product, no matter what type of aircraft it is installed in.”